Ayoola Obafoluke Otudeko was born into a royal family on August 18, 1943, in Ibadan, Oyo state.
Oba Otudeko Education
He had his early education at St. John’s School, Oke Agbo, Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State, and Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, before he travelled out to study Accountancy in Leeds College of Commerce, Yorkshire, UK.
Oba Otudeko has also attended executive management training programmes at International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Harvard Business School and Hult International Business School (then known as Arthur D. Little School of Management).
Oba Otudeko Career
After returning to Nigeria, Otudeko took a bank employment as a clerk in the defunct Co-operative Bank, Ibadan.
Over the next two decades, he moved through the ranks to become the General Manager and acting Chief Executive Officer of the Bank. He voluntarily retired from the bank in 1983 and was appointed a Director to the Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Though he started out in the banking sector, he is now a notable personality in the manufacturing sector, creating thousands of jobs along the value chain and improving local production for the country.
Having a mother who was a businesswoman, Otudeko always knew he would someday go into business. His retirement from the bank gave him the time to pursue this interest.
In the 1970s, Oba Otudeko founded Honeywell Enterprises. The trading enterprise company later grew into Honeywell Group, a diversified industrial, trading and investment conglomerate.
In addition to the Honeywell Group, Oba Otudeko was also Chairman of FBN Holdings Plc and has, at various points been Chairman of Airtel Nigeria Limited and Fan Milk of Nigeria Plc. He was on the Board of First Bank of Nigeria Plc for 12 years, retiring as the Chairman in 2010.
He has also held directorship positions in private companies operating in real estate, international trade and finance, and brewing, including Guinness Nigeria and Ecobank Transnational Inc.
Oba Otudeko was elected the 16th President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange in September 2006, and tried to transform the Nigerian capital market.
He is also a council member, Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigerian Banks Employers’ Association, West African Banks’ Association and the Presidential Advisory Council on Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan.
Oba Otudeko was Chairman of the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce (NSACC) and aimed to facilitate investment flows into Nigeria.During his tenure as the NSACC Chairman, the volume of Nigeria-South Africa bilateral trade grew significantly from $16.5 million in 1999 to $2.9 billion in 2010.He was also on the Board of the NEPAD Business Group – Nigeria.
He was Chairman of the Business Support Group (BSG) for delivery of the National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP).
In 2013, he was also appointed the chairman of the Digital Africa Conference Exhibition in Abuja, Nigeria.
From 2001 to 2010, he was Chancellor of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.
In 2003, Oba Otudeko established a non- governmental organisation called Oba Otudeko Foundation (OOF) as an official vehicle to carry out his philanthropic acts.
Over the years, the foundation has organised empowerment programmes, as well as capacity building, and building of institutions.
The foundation built an Auditorium for Pan Atlantic University, an Administrative Block to All Saints’ College, Edun Village, Ibadan, Footprints Occupational Training Centre, and the Endowment of the Centre of Entrepreneurial Studies of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State among others.
Otudeko chairs the Board of Directors of Honeywell Flour Mill Plc and FBN Holdings Plc.
He is a Fellow, Institute of Chartered and Corporate Accountants, UK, Chartered Institute of Bankers, UK, and Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK.
Oba is also a member of the Office of Distinguished Friends of London Business School and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.
Otudeko is a member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in 2000; Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), 2002; Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), 2011 and most recently, the National Productivity Order of Merit in 2019.
